February 6

I'm pretty sure he's giving you the thumb's up.

Success: How do we define it? Who is successful at PA?

Thanks for your thoughts and ideas during our discussion last week about who succeeds at PA?. I appreciated your straightforward thoughts and holistic view. I found myself thinking that it's somewhat easy to define the characteristics or traits of successful students and to identify things that interfere with student success, such as, mental health, trauma, hunger, disability, etc. I think it's much harder to determine what to do when we understand why students struggle, especially when some of the obstacles for a student are out of our control. However, I believe that a PBL system has great potential to help minimize obstacles, challenges, and inequities for many of our students. Some of the things we talked about, such as, providing regular 'call back' time and monitoring and direct instruction on Scholarly Habits will help students who struggle to succeed in school. In addition, creating structures that allow for common language, multiple opportunities for practice, variation in pace and time to demonstrate proficiency, and emphasizing growth will also help many of our learners who have traditionally not felt successful in school.

Furthermore, as we continue to consider ways to help more student succeed at greater levels, I ask you not to be fooled by the masks our students sometimes wear. These masks sometimes look like apathy, anger, refusal, aggression, and a host of other challenging behaviors. These behaviors do not mean that a student doesn't care or doesn't want to succeed. It often means they are scared, confused, embarrassed, conflicted, etc. These masks are actually beacons. They are cries for help and our understanding. Our students need our empathy and skill to show them how to succeed when they don't think it's possible.

Upcoming TA 

FEBRUARY

2/7 - Winter Carnival Prep - see prompt from Rebecca	2/10  -  Winter Carnival Prep or on your own
2/14 - Academic check in / Scholarly Habit / Wolf Track	2/17 - Academic check in / Scholarly Habit / Wolf Track
2/21 COMMUNITY MEETING (Geography Documentary Presentation) Acapella Choir	2/24 - No TA - Winter Carnival

Calendar

Come on out and join the club.

2/3-7- French Trip to Canada
2/10 - Quebec Students visit
2/13 - BP - Scholarly Habits
2/20 - BP - ODWP Calibration
2/21 - NO TA - Community Meeting
2/24- Most Likely Winter Carnival

This Week's Link: Road Tested: 5 Ways to Increase Inquiry

Schoolwide Happenings: 

Thumbs up for hard work. 

Local rockers!

backstage postproduction team working on their documentary.

After school HW - redo club, they are trying to get it. 

Something to do with Shakespeare?

Celebrations:

Nice cake and thanks again for the powerschool/schoology/grading/reporting support. 

Happy Birthday: None this week...or next....